I'm looking to implement an IT Survey asking questions about IT performance etc. I was looking for ideas relating to the questions I should ask.
Can anybody recommend resources for this?

I'm sorry, I don't know of any resources.

However, here are some rules.

1. Do not ask for things you really don't need to know (if the respondents gender and age is of no actual use, don't ask for it just beacuse every other survey has 'em)
2. Do not ask the respondents opinion about matters you really can't change (eg. Would you like another government?)
3. Never pose a question where it is obvious what the user will reply (eg. "Would you like faster response times") without stating the consequences (eg. "Would you like faster reponse times in exhange for longer service hours, or vice versa?")

Final tip: Use a company that specializes in conducting surveys. A few dollars spent on consultants (QA) could be the difference between a good and a completely useless survey.

Now, back on topic: Do you think this answer was most useful to cats or dogs?_________________J. Bryde
Advisor
The Norwegian Correctional Services IT Centre

Dogs are better for manual work and cooking, but cats have a much higher pass rate when it comes to accountancy exams.

Tough call.

UJ

I had to pause for thought over the dogs doing manual work but I understood the bit about cats and accountants; it's take take take all the time.[/b]_________________"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

Our satisfaction surveys results went up when we traded the dogs with chipmunks. They manage scripts better, cost less in food, and have a better understanding of customer issues than dogs do. Only drawback: complaints about the high-pitched voices.

I cannot divulge the identity of a poorly performing employee, but it was NOT Alvin. Let's just say his name starts with T, and is the first name of an American president whose last name is identical to another American president.

Last name is Roosevelt. Had you staffed your desk with chipmunks, you'd be a Senior Chipmunker, and know the first name of Alvin's mate (which starts with T). Our employees have no relation with these media ones, this was a joke...

Let's say these help-desk chipmunks are much appreciated for their active listening skills, their thorough understanding of both business and tech issues, and have completely integrated their role as ambassadors of the IT organization. We're actually working on a voice filter to diminish the poor perception caused by their voices, which even led to issues with users over 50 who could not perceive the high frequencies of our staff.
Here are the results to one of the questions:

Did the Help Desk Technician:
Appear knowledgeable and competent?
Yes 95% No 2% NA 3%
Handle your issue with professionalism and courtesy?
Yes 92% No 1% NA 7%
Diagnose and resolve your inquiry?
Yes 85% No 10% NA 5%
Create and record your inquiry in a ticket?
Yes 97% No 3% NA 0%
Forward you a copy of the ticket?
Yes 99% No 0% NA 1%

You don't even want to read the results we got when we had dogs. These were Golden Retrievers, by the way, and I lack more solid data on other breeds' performance. One further improvement we got from the analysis of the survey above was to diagnose hearing issues in some of our users, which led to getting hearing aids for some of them, and we were able to measure a decline in number of external customers lost, since 18% of our salesforce had major hearing problems which impaired their gaining new contracts.

FDG I am impressed with your research and think it bodes well for the chipmonk labour market. I could only dream of a human team getting that type of feedback in a customer survey. Most people find IT staff completely unintelligble.

I am concerned though, as here in the UK we don't have a large population of the squeaky little fellas. I would like to make some comparitive suggestions, though they are largely untested in the IT industry, most of these in fact work in marketing:

I would only choose the ones capable of grooving in a cave._________________"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

Indeed our chipmunks' results are impressive. We must hope the cuteness factor does not affect further results negatively, if users' perceptions have been thus far influenced by the appealing aspect of the little critters. But their first time resolution rate remains high enough to keep management's support.
I should say that being a chipmunk whisperer, which is the main factor that made staffing the service desk with said animals possible, is NOT a very common skill. Hence I'm not sure this could be reproduced elsewhere. Plus importing these animals from North-America could be illegal, but our staff survived the transatlantic flight quite wee, which is not the case of the suitcase they traveled in.
I don't know the way these other animals UJ suggests perform. I'd say exploring the bird path could be promising. Chirping must be easily convertible in simple human vocal messages. Birds might be intelligent enough to handle first-line assistance with proper training and procedures.

Diarmid's suggestion is interesting, but how do you then handle the Service Desk's visibility?

In any case, the main factor in animal staff adoption is the cost. But look out for hidden costs (you might look up Gartner's site on TCA, total cost of animals), such as highly specialized training, possible litigation with animal rights groups which might make unions look nice in comparison.

This is all way too technical for me. I will contact Gartner about this, it's something that could take off in a big way, along the lines of cloud computing, only cuter.

Would a chipmonk whisperer be a single role in the Service Desk or would it be incorporated into the team leader job spec?

Squirrels didn't make the list, but we all know why. Thieving little b*stards, they'll have your pens and post-it note pads before you've made your first coffee._________________Did I just say that out loud?